The Sherlock Holmes Handbook (2009)

review 1: This book is more of a compilation of Sherlock Holmes' adventures where he applied certain skills, rather than a handbook on how to develop those skills. For example, there is a section on disguises with a short guidance on seeing yourself as playing a role and then selecting the outfit to go with it. The rest of the section then describes incidents where Holmes had donned disguises so effectively that he even fooled Dr. Watson on several occasions. There are also sections about the life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and quotes from Holmes. It's not a handbook. But it is an excellent read for a Sherlock Holmes fan.review 2: I bought this at Barnes and Noble, just being a cute little compendium to Sherlock Holmes. It's small in size, and you don't get a whole lot a... morebout cases, it's more like facts about why some things would be accurate (and where in the canon it's cited) and factoids about Victorian England.I enjoyed it, it was a fun read. I put little tabs for The Hound of the Baskervilles to take to book club.When I got to the back, I saw the author was a Mental Floss blogger and was assisted by John Green (who also does Mental Floss on YouTube).But of course. I never stray far from Mental Floss. I can smell smarts a mere bookshelf away. less